Mark Grose: Shootings only add to hurt of teachers, students in schools

Hurt to the core. That describes how all of us teachers feel about the killings in Connecticut and anywhere that teachers and students are hurt. "Hurt a school and you hurt us." An article I read last month clearly stated how our public schools are our community in every sense of the word.

Although not nearly the same, our schools in Texas are experiencing hurt, too. We've seen tremendous cuts to all our funding. Despite factually incorrect letters and articles to the contrary, we are struggling mightily to do more with less. Some of these critics have actually waged an attack on teachers and public schools.

We've lost thousands of teacher positions in the state. That means more classes filled with more students. Let's look at who these students are.

They are kids who have just lost a parent, who have a parent in jail, in the hospital and some who don't know either parent. These kids are deaf, blind, learning disabled or facing a host of other challenges. Some have slept at night in cars while waiting for their parent at work. Some have been locked in a closet. They are real kids and they live in Abilene. They are all in our classrooms. We take them all.

Let's look at who we are — the teachers. We are single, widowed or married with a spouse with cancer.

Most of us don't belong to the country club. We struggle with how to make ends meet and sometimes have a second job. Some of us arrive at 6:30 or 7 in the morning. Some of us don't leave until 5 or 6 and still take home work. We attend workshops and extra training to progress in our career. Some of us are aides in the classroom, making $19,000 a year. Now tell us where we should cut.

We are not looking for more money which will magically make us work harder. We don't work that way. All these students have a story and they all must pass the STAAR, no matter what. Let's take some of the a half-billion dollars spent on this test and put it back into the classroom.

We are not opposed to accountability in any profession. We want to know how our kids are doing and want to challenge them to do better. We do want a reasonable amount of testing, not overkill. Let's do the carrot, not the stick.

The ones doing the hurt are varied. Some just have a grudge against teachers and their schools. Some cite inaccurate studies about more funds and student achievement. Some are governors and legislators who just have never visited a classroom lately and have no idea the immense task before us. Some think class size doesn't matter. Come sit in our classes and see for yourselves.

So folks, don't hurt us anymore. Help us do our jobs. Help restore needed positions so these students are given a chance. When you hurt our schools, you hurt us.